Buckle.



J. H. TABLER- BUCKLE;

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 10. 1917.

LQMQWE; Patented May ?,191&

31404411 owl-- Jail/z 15mm 73/526]? To on whom it may concern JOHN HOWARD TABLER, 0F LANHA'IVIC, MARYLAND BUCKLE.

Be it known that I, J OHN HOWARD Tanner, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lanham, [in the county of Prince Georges and State of Maryland, have invented a Buckle, of which the following is a full and complete specification.

My invention relates more especially to that particular tyfre of buckle in which the free end of the attached strap or webbing is connected and secured to the fronirend of said buckle by frictional engagement therewith, leaving the strap free of the usual holes and permitting it to be readily and accurately adjusted 0r tightlybound' around the article to which it may be applied; being in the present instance an improvement upon the buckle shown and described in my prior Patpnt No. 1,216,881, issued February 90th, 191

The primary object of in invention is to provlde a tongueless buckl e of this gen eral type for use in connection with a webbing-strap for general purposes, whereby the strap may be easily and conveniently looped around a package,.school books, &c., and the slack quickly taken 'up by simply pulling upon the free end of the same; the engagement of the cross-bars of the buckle with the ends of the strap cooperating in the resent instance to firmly hold down the Front end of the buckle and provide a more secure binding action on the free end of the strap which is looped therein, preventing said binding. strap from becoming loose'under the tension to which it may be subjected in use.

These objects and advantages, as well as others that will hereinafter appear, are attained in the resent instance by the particularformation of the buckle com rising opposite side pieces and a plurality 0 cross bars extending between the same and arranged in a particular manner to provide for connecting the ends of the webbin strap thereto in aneiiective'manner'. all as ereinafter fully described and specifically claimed. In the accompanyingdrawings, forming :1. art hereof:

igure 1 is a perspective view illustrating Specification of Letters Patent.

the application of my improved buckle in connection with a book strap.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the buckle, in connection with a webbing strap.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the buckle.

Fig. 4 is a view illustrating a modifica- Patented May at, rate. v a lication filed march re, 1917. serial no. 153,951. I

buckle is made of a single casting or in one I, 7, and a plurality of cross-bars, hereinafter referred to, extending between said side buckle, and at the upper edges of said side.

pieces, is a cross-bar 8, to which one end of the webbing-strap A is attached either temporarily Or permanently, as hereinafterdescribed, and adjoining said crossbar in the rear thereof is a cross-bar or cross-p ece 9, below whicli'j'he attached end p'drtion of the strap passes so'that said cross-bar'or 0th ends of the Webbing-strap,

' .iece to present opposite parallel side pieces" cross-piece will act as a stop, for the purpose which will be hereinafter explained.

At the forward end of the buckle is a crossbar 10. extending between the side pieces 7 preferably a short distance above the lower edges thereof, and this crossbar may be provided with an angular edge 11 at the inner lower corner thereof, as shown in Fig. 2. Said front cross-bar ldis provided with a forwardlyprojecting. "tongue 13, providing the" means by which the front end of the buckle may be tilted upward in releasing the strap.

In the rear of the "front crossbar 10 and at a higher elevation than the same is a pieces'and disposed with relation to said front cross-bar so as to leave a narrow space or slot. as 16, through which the end of the strap is passed after being looped over the cross-bar 15 from the rear thereof. As in my prior patent hereinbefore mentioned the cross-bars 10 and 15 form the means for tion witha strap of leather,,fabric, or other material possessing the required flexibility, and in practice I n'd it very effective with a cotton stra commonly known as webbing, the width 0 the strap approximating the space between the side pieces of the buckle so as to easily slip there etween; the buckle being made of different sizes according to the different width of strap or webbing that may be produced; for instance when used as a buckle in connection with a book-strap the latter may be of three-quarter-inch webbing and the Width of the buckle between the side pieces thereof should correspond, and when applied to a trunk-strap the webbing would probably be an inch and a half or two inches wide according to the work or strain to which the stra and buckle may be subjected, the size an strength of the buckle corresponding, of course, with the width and thickness of webbing used.

In attaching the buckle permanently to a length of webbing-strap one end of the latter is attached to the cross-bar 8 by looping it around said cross-bar and riveting the. terminal portion to the body directly below the same, so that this attached end of the strap willpass out of the rear end of the buckle below the rear cross-piece 9, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. In attaching a cotton webbing strap to the buckle the end of the strap is turned in (Fig. 2),

so that it will not fray, requiring three thicknesses of the webbing adjoining the cross-bar 8, which lie under the cross piece 9; and therefore in practice said cross-piece is preferably located a distance above the lower edges of the side pieces 7 7, to receive the several thicknesses, with probably a single thickness below said edges.

In use the free end of the webbing-strap is passed into the forward end of the buckle below the cross-bar 10, up between the crossbars 8 and 15, over the last mentioned crossbar to and under the front cross-bar, so that said free end of the strapwill be looped in the buckle and the terminal portion pass out of the same between the front cross-bar and body of the strap. The strap is then formed into a loop, ('see Fig. 2) which may be readily slipped over the package or pile of books and tightly bound around the same by simply pulling on the projecting end of said strap. Of course the threading of the free end of the strap, or looping it around the crossbar 15, may be done after the strap is passed around the package or books; but by keeping the adjustable end of the strap in looped engagement with the cross-bar 15, or in a more convenient operative position as shown in said Fig. 2, it may be more quickly manipulated in binding or tying up ackages,- books, &c.

V hen the free or projecting end of the strap is pulled upon in binding the packa e the looped portion of the strap within tl ie front end of the buckle is frictionally engaged in such manner as to prevent any giilving or loosening under the strain on t at portion of said strap which encircles the package; this binding action of the front part of the buckle being augmented to a considerable extent by reason of the coiiperation of the cross-piece 9 at the rear end of said buckle bearin upon the attached end of the strap and olding the forward end ofrthe buckle down preventing movement thereof away from the package. The application-of the cross-piece or stop-bar not only maintains the binding action of the buckle on the adjustable end of the stra but by holding the front end of the buck e down keeps the buckle fiat on the package So that it will present avneat appearance.

In order to release the binding action of the buckleon the strap it is only necessary to tilt said buckle upward by ushing a finger of the hand under the lifting-tongue 13, which relieves the binding action of the front cross-bar 10 and permits the looped I, end of the said strap to slip around the companion cross-bar 15.

For convenience in holding the buckle while pulling on the projecting free end of the same, and more especially as a fingerhold for carrying the package, I may form at the rear end of the buckle, preferably integrally with the cross-piece 9, a ring 17, as shown in the modification Fig. 4 of the drawings. The utility of this ring will be readily apparent, and it will be found especially useful to letter-carriers when the strap and buckle are employed for tying together packages of mail-matter.

Having described my invention, I claim:

A bue le comprising side pieces with lower straight" bearing edges, a front cross-bar at the upper edges of the side pieces having a forwardly-projecting lifting-tongue, a plain cross-bar in the rear of the front cross-bar at a higher elevation than the same over which the free end of the strap is looped to pass under the front cross-bar and lifting-tongue, a plain cross bar near the rear ends ,of the side pieces rem-nee m at the upper edges thereof to which the 'der tension the buckle will he disposed on I other end of the strap "it attached, and a line with the portions thereof-extending a cross-piece extending between the side from said buckle front and rear and main- 10 pieces above the lower edges thereof to bear tain frictional engagement with the looped 5 upon the attached end of the strap and end of the strap, as herein shown and deforce the front crossbar and lifting-tongue scribed. downward, whereby when the strap is un- JOHN HOWARD TABLER. 

